In the early hours of this morning, in a match in the 29th round of Serie A, Roma away relied on a penalty in stoppage time to equalize the powerhouse Udinese, with nine rounds left in the season, Roma has fallen behind fourth-place Juventus by as many as 8 points, basically completely losing the hope of fighting for fourth place, even the fight for 6 is in jeopardy. In this game, Roma was passive, tactically it was completely suppressed by Udinese, the midfield was out of control, the counterattack point was blocked, the left side was kicked out, Mourinho rarely lost the standard, there was nothing that could be done about it, Udinese had many 2-0 opportunities, they wasted it, if it was not good luck, Roma would probably be a big defeat away.
With Mkhitaryan suspended for a red card, Mourinho replaced him in a 352 formation with Cristante, Oliveira and Pellegrini in midfield, with Zaniolo and Tammy Abraham in the forward line as double strikers. But because Udinese's defender lineman is tall and very strong, Zaniolo is in the whole field of close fighting body, countless times people on horseback, Abraham is also completely blocked by the opponent to lose countless goals, in the case of the double center is completely blocked, Roma frontcourt lost the counterattack point, and the midfield can not go out of the ball, can only keep big feet out of the ball, but Udinese's tall defender line, not afraid to fight the body, Roma played very hard, Mourinho can not do anything about it, several adjustments are ineffective, a big loss of standards... Fortunately, in the last minute, Udinese gave a big gift inside the penalty area, and Roma luckily got a penalty, which was earned.
The match also highlighted the importance of Mkhitaryan to this Roma team, which is now very dependent on his midfield offensive organization, neither Oliveira nor Pellegrini has the ability to break through, and the midfielder is very easy to concede and be counter-attacked. In Mourinho's 352 formation, Mkhitaryan is even more indispensable, the only reliable point of the Roma midfield, and it is his absence that has led to Roma's delay in breaking through Udinese's midfield. And Mourinho saw the team in passivity, but he could not find a solution to the solution, but also very disappointing, this is a tactically defeated game, Roma's tactical arsenal is too monotonous...